Life In The Philloverse

Sunday, February 7, 2016

I've been thinking about this for two weeks and almost forgot to post:

I feel like Carolina is the better, more well rounded team. I picked against them a lot all season and they continuously proved me wrong -- that is, except for one week when I picked them to win and they lost.

Then again, this could be Peyton Manning's swan song. This has been the worst year of his career statistically but he's made the throws when he had to, and it's feeling like he could ride out as a champion.

Sunday, January 24, 2016

We're down to the final four. Unfortunately the Seahawks didn't come through for me last week, so I've missed 2 games in the playoffs this year with three to play (last year I only missed 1 game the entire playoffs, because Green Bay choked). Still, 6-2 is nothing to be ashamed about.

It's going to be more challenging this time because I think all four teams are pretty evenly matched. There's four possible Super Bowl matchups (New England-Carolina, New England-Arizona, Denver-Carolina, Denver-Arizona), and I can legitimately see any of the four coming to fruition.

This week's picks:

New England 26, Denver 16 -- No idea what to make of this game. Does Peyton Manning have one last Super Bowl ring in him? Are the healthy Patriots back? Which defense will play better? I'm simply going to go with my heart on this one.

Arizona 20, Carolina 10 -- No idea what to make of this game either, but I've been picking against Carolina all year. Why stop now?

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

I have this unhealthy habit of watching The Bachelor. I say unhealthy because I recognize that there's a lot to dislike about the show and its premise. Sure, there are 25 beautiful women and the eye candy factor is a strong appeal to me. But they try to win the affection of someone they barely know, by allowing themselves to be put in awkward situations that no self-respecting person would allow themselves to be placed, to start a very fake relationship with someone that rarely lasts longer than a couple of months beyond the final episode.

So here's a personal confession: I have very conflicted feelings about relationships. One side, the hopeless romantic in me, believes in true love and that there's a soulmate out there for everyone. Then there's the fatalist in me, who is convinced that, given enough time and exposure to each partners' dark side, all relationships are eventually doomed to failure. I guess The Bachelor appeals to each side of my own inner conflict.

The show's producers excel at editing in all the crazy from all the contestants. Most of them are probably very normal, but that wouldn't make good TV so normal interactions hit the cutting room floor. Every season there are a few "stars" who steal the show, who come across as, say, less than normal.

This year one of the early stars was Lace. Lace got a lot of attention by pulling Bachelor Ben aside what seemed like a couple hundred times and complaining that he wasn't paying attention to him, one time even after she had received a rose from him. This led to Lace being the subject of relentless livetweeting, and at one point I tweeted about it as well.

But on Monday night's episode, a funny thing happened on the way to the rose ceremony. Lace pulled Ben aside and told him she was leaving. She said "you can't love someone else until you love yourself."

That hit home with me. There have been times in my life when I didn't love myself and I think that often got in the way in all facets of my life. Learning to love myself is still a work in progress. I think I have much more self-appreciation that I used to, and that's helped me immensely in recent years. But there's a fine line between blind self-love (obliviousness, cockiness, arrogance, or however you want to phrase it) and wanting to improve as a human being, telling yourself, "You know I'm a pretty cool person but I'd be more satisfied with life if I [insert random self-improvement tool here]." I still have things I need to improve in myself, but I'm much happier and healthier than I was a couple of years ago.

Usually The Bachelor is just mind-numbing TV. Last night I felt like I learned something about myself. And it was all because a young lady named Lace changed the course of the conversation, even if only for a couple of minutes.

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Last week I went 3-1 in the wild-card round, probably should've gone 4-0 but I was convinced all four road teams couldn't win and gave way too much credit to the Houston Texans. Oh well.

This week's picks:

New England 28, Kansas City 21 -- Not sure what to make of this game, between Chandler Jones' marijuana incident last weekend, injuries to Gronk and Edelman and Vollmer, not to mention Jeremy Maclin on the Chiefs' side. Strictly a pick from my heart -- I can see this gam going either way.

Arizona 33, Green Bay 13 -- Can't see the Packers beating a team that beat them by 30 thre weeks ago. But I guess that's why they play the games.

Seattle 31, Carolina 17 -- I picked against Carolina a lot this year considering they were 15-1 team. And usually one home team blows it on Divisional Playoff week. So why not?

Denver 24, Pittsburgh 17 -- Steelers are depleted without Antonio Brown or DeAngelo Williams. I can see Pittsburgh rising up and overcoming but this seems too much like a game Denver is destined to win.

Indianapolis
27, Tennessee 10 – Colts make playoffs with a win
coupled with loses by the Texans, Saints, Browns, Patriots, Bengals, Jets, Chargers
and Chiefs – but only if psi of all footballs in each game is above 14.5

New
England 28, Miami 0 – THEN: “Boy
Dan Campbell really lit a fire under those Dolphins.” NOW: “Boy Dan Campbell
really has those Dolphins playing for a Top 5 draft pick.”

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Another good week. I lost the
Thursday and Monday night games, and in between those two bookends I went 12-2.
Merry Xmas to me.

The bad news is, it’s now
mathematically impossible for me to beat my winning percentage last year, as the
four losses means I eclipsed last year’s loss total for the year. Oh well. We’ll
get ‘em next year.

This week’s picks:

Oakland
26, San Diego 13 – Most important part of this matchup:
these two future stadium roommates hash out their locker room arrangements when
they both move to Los Angeles.

Philadelphia
27, Washington 24 – A Redskin victory would clinch the
high-school-melodramatic NFC East for Washington with a week to spare. So of
course the Eagles will win.

Carolina
10, Atlanta 3 – Still not convinced Carolina is an
undefeated-caliber team. Meanwhile I’m like 1-13 picking Falcons games this
year. So of course Atlanta will win.

Pittsburgh
23, Baltimore 20 – THE BAD NEWS: Ryan Mallett expected
to start at QB for the Ravens. THE GOOD NEWS: the game’s in Baltimore, so they don’t
have to worry about him missing the team flight.

Buffalo
14, Dallas 3 – The only two teams to meet in
back-to-back Super Bowls, except this year Troy Aikman and Jim Kelly aren’t walking
through that door.

Detroit
20, San Francisco 6 – Hard to believe
49ers looked really good on Opening Night against a team that’s virtually a
playoff lock.

Miami
20, Indianapolis 13 – Winning head
coach keeps game film for his resume.

New
England 17, N.Y. Jets 16 – Two weeks
ago Jets were 8-5 and (if the season had ended then) would’ve been in the
playoffs. They could conceivably win out and, because of crazy tiebreaker rules,
finish 11-5 and not make the playoffs. This is the kind of thing that would
only happen to the Jets.

New
Orleans 20, Jacksonville 19 – Twelve
years ago this week Saints, trailing 20-13, scored on a play involving like 12
laterals as time expired – and then missed the extra point to lose. It’ been
that kind of season for the Saints.

Seattle
30, St. Louis 10 – At least the Rams won’t be
jet-lagged in Seattle anymore after they move to Los Angeles.

Minnesota
34, N.Y. Giants 17 – THIS WEEK’S NFL SUSPENSIONS: Odell
Beckham Jr., 1 game for head-butting Josh Norman; Tom Coughlin, 2 games for
coaching with his head up his ass in the final 1:45 of every 2015 Giants’ loss.

Denver
37, Cincinnati 28 – Last year this game was also on Week
16 Monday night and a Cincinnati win clinched home field throughout the
playoffs for New England. Hopefully Patriots will home-field wrapped up by
Sunday at 4.